Ramon Munoz-Raskin, an urban planning graduate
student at Columbia University, stands in
front of a Transmilenio bus in Bogota, Colombia. Munoz-Raskin
is studying whether or not access to a bus rapid transit system
affects property values.

My research analyzes whether the implementation of a bus rapid
transit system (BRT) has effects on residential property values.
In other words: If your property falls within the proximity of
a mass transit solution, is it worth more?

The case study is the
Transmilenio BRT in Bogota, Colombia. This system has worldwide
recognition as a best practical example of BRT implementation.
Its outstanding operational performance is attracting municipal
governments from numerous cities on many other countries of the
world.

Since Transmilenio is being used as a reference
for exporting the BRT idea to other cities in the world, it is
crucial to understand the indirect effects (also known as secondary
effects) as a means to expand the knowledge of the full potential
of this urban transportation and urban development model. However,
little research has been done to quantitatively analyze its indirect
effects on the city of Bogota.

In a non-industrialized country, gathering the appropriate data
for the research is a great challenge and the real bottle neck
for the research. It is highly recommended to have good native
contacts in the field and to begin working with them on what kind
of data sources exist in the country long before starting the research.

In my case, I had never visited Colombia, so I had to spend a lot
of effort trying to understand its political and managerial idiosyncrasies.
It is important to try to think in advance about what you can offer
to the local and national government, NGOs or private sector actors
who could benefit from your research, and what they can offer you
in return. This approach must be very respectful and must keep
in mind that there is a good chance that you may not get what you
want.

The BRT system in Bogota, Colombia -- Transmilenio
-- has transformed the city by providing quality transportation
to marginalized areas and bringing dignity to public tranportation
users.

Photo credit: Munoz-Raskin, R.

Bottom line: As an official at the Colombian
National Department of Planning told me: "Ramon, you must learn the way research
is done here, which is that you do not select your research topic
and expect that there will be data about it. The way things work
here is that when you find data, you analyze it and see what research
you can do with it." In my case, I found six available data
sources, but due to incomplete data, unfulfilled promises from
officials, and interminable bureaucratic processes, I had to choose
a suboptimal data source for my research.

Thanks to a grant
from the Earth Institute, I had the opportunity to visit the areas
surrounding the system and become familiar with their attributes.
I also had very fruitful meetings with officials at the National
Department of Planning and Transmilenio, among other organizations,
that provided very valuable insights on my preliminary findings
and that helped me with the econometric interpretation.

The field experience was
also a fascinating opportunity to talk with people of all socio-economic
strata. I adopted the strategy to ask them about the BRT system
without initially telling them anything about my interest in it,
and, to my satisfaction, one after another of the taxi drivers,
waiters, new friends and citizens in general showed me how important
Transmilenio is for Bogota. The system is the "jewel" of
the city with its modernity and has renovated large urban areas.
It brought employment to marginalized slums in the outskirts, safety,
dignity to public transport users, environmental improvements,
sense of ownership, pride and a better quality of life to many
city dwellers.

As an anecdote on my flight to Bogota, I was
listening to two people sitting next to me who did not know each
other. One of them said that he had not been to Bogota in 11 years,
and that he remembered it as a city in which the worst problem
was congestion. The other one added: "No, but now it is different, because
we have Transmilenio!"

I am very grateful to the Earth Institute for
its important support to this research. Other contributors were
the Columbia University Institute of Latin American Studies, the
Colombia National Department of Planning and the Institute for
Transportation and Development Policy.

About The Earth Institute
The Earth Institute
at Columbia University is the world's leading academic center for
the integrated study of Earth, its environment and society. The
Earth Institute builds upon excellence in the core disciplines  earth
sciences, biological sciences, engineering sciences, social sciences
and health sciences  and stresses cross-disciplinary approaches
to complex problems. Through research, training and global partnerships,
it mobilizes science and technology to advance sustainable development,
while placing special emphasis on the needs of the world's poor.
For more information, visit www.earth.columbia.edu.